1. Beleaguered Alberta cuts bureaucrat pay

Ed Kaiser / Edmonton Journal

Alberta has taken the ultimate step, for an NDP government, of freezing pay for civil servants. Yes, just like they were ordinary working stiffs. But wait … only non-unionized bureaucrats will be affected, and only the relative fatcats. Unionized employees will still get special treatment. The salary freeze will affect about 7,000 civil servants, most of whom make over $110,000. Still, says the union’s president, “morale” will be affected. Kind of like everyone else in Alberta.

2. Shame on the Canadian Olympic Committee

(Pat McGrath/The Ottawa Citizen)

How is it that “a majority” of employees in a large organization like the Canadian Olympic Committee could witness or be aware of sexual harassment by a leading member of the board, and later president, yet it could go on for years with no one doing anything about it, or the fact becoming a public issue? “It is clear that we could have done more,” says the current president. Gee, no kidding. Marcel Aubut was ordered in 2011 “to stop touching, kissing and making lewd comments to female employees.” Yet was able to hang onto his job? And wasn’t monitored. How inept an organization do you have to be to let that happen?

3. Ontario pension story changes again

Peter J. Thompson/National Post

The Ontario Liberals seem to be making it up as they go along as far as their pension plan is concerned. First they were going it alone, then they were hopeful the federal Liberals would save them the effort of launching a separate plan and expand CPP instead; when that didn’t work they plunged ahead and declared the Ontario plan could be simply rolled into the federal one later. But that’s not true either: the federal plan applies to everyone who works; the Ontario plan is limited to specific situations. The contribution cap is double the CPP. The investment strategies could be different, the returns different, the holdings different. It’s not at all apples and apples, but Kathleen Wynne continues to blithely pretend it is.

4. Alberta schools get new gender rules

Toby Talbot/Associated Press

New transgender education guidelines released Wednesday in Alberta suggest all staff be given the chance to opt for the neutral honorific MX., in lieu of Mr. or Mrs., or that students and staff be allowed to use non-gendered pronouns such as ze or zir, instead of he and she. Schools should reduce or eliminate any segregation by gender and “avoid structuring courses or activities based on gender-specific roles such as boys versus girls in academic, athletic or talent competition.” Dress codes should be as neutral as possible, so schools don’t demand a certain type of clothing, such as skirts, should be worn only by one gender. And of course no one should have to pee where they don’t want to.

5. Ottawa in a hurry to borrow and spend

OPP/Twitter

The Trudeau government is reportedly “actively considering” speeding up promised investments in infrastructure. Why? Because the economy is bad and needs “stimulating”. But is the goal to build essential infrastructure, or spend money wherever possible? We saw what happened when the Tories pushed money out the door: the Liberals howled, along with others, at the inefficiency and waste that ensued. So now they want to emulate them?

6. Finland joins the thug club

Markus Luukkonen/Lehtikuva VIA AP

Add Finland to the list of countries with anti-immigrant thugs. The “Soldiers of Odin” have surfaced as self-proclaimed patriots patrolling the streets to protect native Finns from immigrants. And they’re determined: In Kemi, they patrol the streets daily despite the temperatures sinking to -30 Celsius. Any immigrant out in that cold would probably welcome the intervention.

7. If climate change doesn’t get us, an ice age will.

AFP/Getty Images

The next Ice Age has been postponed. Phew, that was close. Research published in Nature on Wednesday states that: “Humanity narrowly escaped a glacial inception in the middle of the Holocene, which was almost suppressing the formation of civilization.” In English, that means “pre-industrial human modifications of the climate through agriculture, fires and deforestation” likely delayed the next ice age by 100,000 years. So if climate change doesn’t get us, an ice age will.